Posts Tagged ‘Ashkelon’

An IDF soldier was stabbed in an Arab terror attack early Sunday morning near the central bus station in Ashkelon.

The soldier, age 20, sustained light wounds to his upper body. He was treated at the scene and then evacuated to Ashkelon’s Barzilai Medical Center by paramedics from the Magen David Adom emergency medical response service.

The Israel Police spokesperson for the Southern Regional District said the soldier remained conscious at all times.

A second soldier saw the stabbing and immediately ran after the suspect, who fled, but was chased down and then shot by his pursuer who had quickly closed the distance and neutralized him.

Ashkelon police say they are checking the reason behind the attack but it is believed the stabbing was driven by nationalist — terrorist — motivations.

The attacker was taken to Barzilai Medical Center, where a spokesperson told journalists he is in “very serious condition.” Security personnel are still investigating to determine his identity. There is a possibility that the suspect may be a refugee of Sudanese or Eritrean origin, according to local sources.

Update: 2 PM: Barzilai hospital reports that the stabber has died from his wounds.

VENICE, Israel – A cloudburst exploded over the port city of Ashkelon Monday morning, turning the city into a lake, flooding the hospital and leaving drivers trapped in their cars on city streets.

Damage was heavy, but no one was injured. A baby was among those rescued from waterlogged cars, and divers were seen swimming to reach motorists and passengers.

More than an inch of rain drenched the city within a few minutes, and even old-timers said they never had seen such a torrential downpour in such a short time. Navy police were called out to assist rescue crews.

Water flooded parts of Ashkelon’s Barzilai Hospital, reaching the emergency room, hallways and several wards. The cemetery also was flooded, and a major road in the city collapsed.

The port city already has received twice the normal amount of precipitation for this time of year and a quarter of the rainfall for the entire winter, which started only a couple of weeks ago.

The weather forecast is for the rain to taper off by tonight, but isolated showers will continue from the north to the northern Negev on Tuesday and early Wednesday.

In the wee hours of Monday morning, at around 3 am, a Grad Katyusha missile was fired at southern Israel from Hamas-controlled Gaza, and landed in an open area in the Ashkelon coastal region.

No one was injured and no damage was reported — but no one was warned that the rocket was heading their way, either.

The Iron Dome anti-missile defense system did not fire, and there was no Color Red incoming rocket alert sounded, presumably because it was determined the rocket would land in an open area without people.

Security personnel who searched the area found missile had landed in an open area, near some greenhouses, in the Ashkelon coastal region.

Just three days ago, the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system was called into action to intercept a similar attack launched from Gaza by Palestinian Arab terrorists.

In that instance, the missile was heading straight for the city of Ashkelon, a heavily populated area. The Color Red incoming rocket alert siren wailed its warning from one end of the city to the other.

The missile was intercepted in mid-air and the threat was neutralized, while nearly 120,000 city residents waited safely in their bomb shelters.

(JNi.media) Despite a massive police reinforcement in Jerusalem, clashes between Arabs and security forces raged Friday and Saturday, with serious disturbances in several refugee camps; a rocket exploding in Sderot and a Grad intercepted over Ashkelon—the IAF retaliated.

Friday’s violent clashes in Jerusalem included serious disturbances in the Shuafat refugee camp and in the neighborhoods of A-Tur and Issawiya. Molotov cocktails injured Border Guard officers in Jabel Mukaber, a predominantly Arab neighborhood in south-east Jerusalem. Arab rioters were wounded and arrested. There was another attack on the Jerusalem light rail.

Muslim prayers on the Temple Mount ended in relative quiet Friday afternoon, but at the end of the prayers, according to Ynet, the signal was given for Arabs to start rioting at several locations in Jerusalem. Starting at 1:00 PM Friday, Arabs threw stones at police and Border Guard at Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate. In A-Tur, about half a mile from there, on Mt. Olives, masked rioters hurled stones at police and Border Guard. Officers responded with riot control gear and one rioter was injured by police.

Around 3:00 PM an Arab threw a paint bottle at the light rail tram on the Shuafat line—no one was injured.

Around 4 PM some serious disturbances developed in the Shuafat refugee camp, with dozens of youths, some masked and others wearing gas masks, throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at Border Police officers. One rioter, 18, a resident of Hebron, was arrested. The Border Guard also arrested and transferred for questioning a 17 year-old who was throwing stones at police in Wadi Joz.

There were extremely violent clashes in the Jabel Mukaber neighborhood in southern east Jerusalem, where three border policemen were injured, one moderately and two lightly, from a Molotov cocktail that was thrown at them. An Arab who was shot in the leg was taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in moderate to severe condition. Eight Arabs who were involved in the clashes were later arrested.

At 6:25 PM, Friday, police arrested a 17-year-old Arab who, along with several other young men, threw Molotov cocktails and stones at the security forces and a security vehicle in A-Tur. The local guard fired in the air to disperse the rioters. There were no injuries.

Around 8:00 PM, three Arabs were wounded lightly to moderately, one of them 13-years-old, during clashes between rioters and IDF and border police forces at the Rachel’s Tomb compound. The rioters threw stones and Molotov cocktails at the security forces, and in response the forces fired at them. The boy was evacuated by Magen David Adom paramedics to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem and the rest of the injured were evacuated by the Red Crescent to a hospital in the Palestinian Authority.

At 8:40 PM, sirens sounded in the city of Sderot and the Sha’ar HaNegev regional council, as a rocket hit southern Israel. The rocket, launched from the Gaza Strip, landed adjacent to a bus in the Sderot area, causing damage. Sirens sounded for a second time, at 11:31 PM, in the city of Ashkelon. That rocket was intercepted by the Iron Dome Aerial defense system. No injuries have been reported.

In response to the attacks, IAF aircraft targeted three terror sites in the northern Gaza Strip.

Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, IDF Spokesman stated: “This evening’s acts of aggression are a clear reminder of Gaza’s commitment to violent terrorism. Israeli civilians should not have to live in fear, no one should. Hamas is the ruling power in the Gaza Strip and is therefore responsible, accountable and culpable for every attack emanating from Gaza.”

These were the 10th and 11th rockets to hit Israeli territory since January 2015.

The group is named after Sheikh Omar Hadid, who aided Abu Musab al-Zarqawi found and operate the Iraqi branch of the international Al Qaeda terror organization ten years ago.

Nevertheless, Israel holds Gaza’s ruling Hamas terror organization responsible for any violence or terror attacks that emanate from its territory.

A rocket exploded in the city of Sderot, less than a mile from the Gaza border at approximately 8:30 pm Friday evening.

People were sent fleeing to bomb shelters by the wail of the Color Red incoming rocket alert siren at around the same time they reported hearing the rocket explode in a residential area of the city.

The family whose home was hit by the rocket was home – and inside their home – at the time of the attack, according to local sources, but reportedly were not physically hurt. A number of people at the scene suffered from severe trauma, however.

Both the home and a bus that was parked nearby were damaged in the attack.

A similar Code Red incoming rocket alert was triggered across the coastal city of Ashkelon three hours later, sending nearly 120,000 residents racing for cover, their Sabbath dessert abandoned on the tables.

The Iron Dome anti-missile defense system launched an interceptor missile that successfully neutralized the missile that was fired from Gaza directly at the busy city.

No one was reported injured and no damage was caused in the second attack.